FRANKENSTEINS MONSTER
It's all his fault really !
At the 2025 Bognor Puppet Festival, Bryan used a Frankenstein Monster in his show instead of a Ghost ...
Blame Bryan Clarke !
Turns out Bryan has made quite a few Frankensteins over the years.
But our 'Club' gang had never seen them.
But now something of a craze for them had developed.
l'm always keen to jump on the bandwagon, so I have decided to make myself one too.
I think David Wilde immediately bought the puppet from Bryan, and several other performers put in orders with Bryan for their own Monsters.
But not on my own : Fellow Clubster Chris Drewitt and his own lovely 'Bride', Lianne, are visiting me soon, and we have decided to sculpt a Pulp head each, working in tandem.
A few sculpting reference pics from the internet for inspiration.
I started necks for both our puppets before Chris' visit, as I knew we would be short on time together for the main sculpting.
Underbodies are prepared in advance too.
Hopefully the couple of days we will have available, will give us just enough time to make a head each, and join it onto a body.
D-rings fixed on for securely hanging up the puppets up in the booth.
Matching trousers made in thin brown corduroy.
The necks used the last of my pinkish paper Pulp.
Time to whizz up a big batch but this time in suitably greenish grey.
Extending the necks, to make room for the 'electrode bolts' .
Also to be ready to take the sculpting of the heads when Chris visits.
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At last the weekend of Chris and Lianne's visit has arrived. We first decided on the size we wanted our heads to be.
In general my puppets are very large, what are sometimes called "Beach" sized. Most of the puppets Chris uses are the more regular or "Parlour" size figures.
So it was right that our heads should be differently sized to fit with the puppets they will perform alongside.
Corrugated cardboard and tin foil bulked out the shape of the monsters flat topped head.
A thin layer of papier-mache Pulp is then spread evenly over the head core.
Once the basic shape with ears is made and dried out , more detailed sculpting is done in successive layers to build up the facial features.
Basic ear shapes are formed separately, then glued to the hardened head core, before being firmly joined with more Pulp.
At this stage both Chris and I decided we had not made the top sections of our heads big enough.
Easilly fixed : we used more card and tin foil to bulk out the top of the heads. Then of course a thin layer of Pulp to make a strong join.
Normally puppet making is a very solitary activity for me.
So it was a such good fun to be sculpting puppets alongside such good friends. Chris' wife Lianne sculpted a fair bit of their head, they took turns making It a group effort.
It's one of the benefits of being in The Punch & Judy Club . Just as a professional Guild of performers should, we teach and share our skills with each other.
That's real Fellowship!
We had done very well on our first day. Now at the start of Sunday it was time to make the electrode 'Bolts' to go in his neck.
Fixing on the bolts. Hot glue to tack them in place , pulp to secure them firmly.
End of Saturday, and I used the Procreate drawing app to help me envisage how I wanted the sculpt to develop the following day.
More layers of detailing with Pulp. A bake in the oven between each step, to make sure the head is fully dried out.
The oven is only on a very low heat.
Electric oven at 80 degrees.
About an hour and a half per layer.
We are both very happy with what we have created.
For a single weekend, we have achieved miracles.
We couldn't resist seeing the completed heads tucked into the glove bodies... It would be rude not to.
Chris and Lianne will now take their Monster back to Windsor.
The next time these two puppets are side by side they will be totally finished.
This is likely to be at our Bognor Festival in September 2026.
Come and see them on display there, and also in action in both our shows.
Wonderful pics from the internet of Borris Karloff being put into his film make up.
I still wasn't fully happy with the shape of the head. So I decided to slice off the top of his head and rework it.
While making a cosmetic change to his headshape, I took the opportunity to remove a lot of the internal core materials.
At this point I was almost like Doctor Frankenstein , tinkering with my own Creatures brains !
Much happier with this as final sculpt.
Time to work on his arms and hands.
First job is to strengthen his arm stumps.
Stumps first tailored exactly to fit my finger , then PVA woodglue and fabric to strengthen and harden them to take heavy arms and hands.
I could have used plastic plumbing pipe for this part. But there was plenty of Pulp around, so I used that.
Arm tubes are first glued to the stumps, then bonded strongly with cloth and PVA.
This creates a firm arm to fix big hands to . And these will be HUGE !
I'm using a technique based on Waldo Lanchesters for marionette hands.
This method was taught to me by Chris Leith while I was still at Drama School.
For this job, wood was a much faster option than sculpting them in pulp.
Even by the standard of my puppets : these are massive.
Put into position with hot glue , but pulp will form the really strong bond.
Body pads even out his arms and help create his trademark silhouette.
It is finally time get the paints out and turn him green.
THAT IS A GOOD POINT TO PAUSE THE BUILD FOR CHRISTMAS.
I WILL RESTART HIM IN THE NEW YEAR.
HE WILL CERTAINLY BE READY FOR HIS DEBUT AT MY 21st HEIGHTS OF ABRAHAM SUMMER SEASON 2026.
LOTS MORE PICTURES AND INFO WILL BE ADDED TO THIS PAGE IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE
CHECK BACK AGAIN SOON Cheers Richard.
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